City Service 18 Contract Extended

Bus Users and Stagecoach managers launched the service in March 2017

Bus service 18, the "East City Circular", serving Moorlands, Williamson Park, Standen Gate and the Prison was launched in its current form in March 2017 after a lengthy campaign by the Bus Users' Group (read about it here)

At the time, Lancashire County Council said that there was sufficient funding available from the developers of new housing at Standen Gate to keep the service going for 15 months.  Following efforts by the Bus Users' Group to promote the new service, including delivering timetables to houses along the route, usage was better than expected and has settled down to about 700 passengers a week,  but even so the contract with Stagecoach was due to expire at the end of October, when the service would have been drastically reduced or even withdrawn altogther.

But just as the Group had uncovered the existence of the developer funding in the first place and persuaded the county council to spend it, we also discovered that following further housing development in the area there was now more funding available.

Under the "two-tier" system of local government that applies locally Lancaster City Council as housing authority receives the developers' money whilst Lancashire County Council as transport authority is responsible for spending it.

Getting the two bodies to talk to each other is never easy, but with the help of our City Councillor members, Abi Mills and Tim Hamilton-Cox (and County Councillor Lizzi Collinge, who has been chasing at the county) agreement has been reached and the County Council has now announced that the contract with Stagecoach has been extended until March 2020.

More good news is that when Greyhound Bridge re-opens (hopefully on 8th October) the service will revert to its previous regular timetable, with a bus every half-an-hour rather than the hard-to-remember 40 minute interval that has applied since January.

Although the number of passengers using the service is encouraging it is still not enough for any bus company to run it as a commercial venture so the Bus Users' Group will be looking for ways to work with the County Council and Stagecoach to encourage more people to use it.

New Network Timetables from Stagecoach

Stagecoach's revised network for Lancaster and Morecambe, which was supposed to be introduced on Monday, 24th September has had to be delayed because the county council hasn't finished the repair work to Greyhound Bridge.

This is now scheduled to be complete on Sunday 7th October, with the new timetables coming into force the following day, but as the work apparently needs a week of dry weather to allow the weatherproofing of the new road surface to be completed Stagecoach is wisely saying that the current routes and timetables will remain in operation "until further notice".

This is what Stagecoach is saying about the new network and the changes being made:

Service 6A will increase to give a half hourly service all day from Westgate to Lancaster.

Service 41 will again be able to start from Morecambe before continuing to Garstang and Preston.

We’ll be using double deck buses on the fastest route to the University. 

If you use the 2/2A, 3/3A, 4, U2, U3/U3R, U4 or X3 routes these will be replaced with the following. You can also see a map showing the new routes at the bottom of this page.

The new routes will be the following during Monday to Saturday daytimes with lower frequencies in the evenings and on Sundays. 

Route 1

Every 10 minutes during term time (every 20 minutes during University holidays) between Lancaster University Underpass and Lancaster Bus Station via Scotforth Road, continues to Morecambe via Morecambe Road, Torrisholme Road and Lancaster Road every 10 minutes. From Morecambe to Heysham all buses will run via Westminster Road with a bus every 20 minutes via Heysham Road and a bus every 20 minutes via the top of Kingsway. Buses will come together at Sugham Lane giving a 10 minute frequency to the bottom of Kingsway, Mossgate Park, Heysham Towers and Heysham Mossgate Road. 

Route 2 and 2X

Every 15 minutes from Alexandra Park and Lancaster University Underpass to Lancaster Bus Station via Hala, Newmarket Avenue and Bowerham. Buses keep the same frequency all year. Buses then continue to Morecambe via Torrisholme Road, Low Lane, Bare, and the Seafront to Morecambe Bus Station.
At Morecambe bus station a bus every half hour will continue to Heysham and then Lancaster Bus Station via the by-pass as service 2X. Through fares from anywhere on the 2X to anywhere on the 2 and vice versa will be available and you won’t need to change buses. The half hourly 2X will travel via Heysham Road, Heysham Village, Heysham Towers and Higher Heysham and Combermere Road. 2X buses will then run along the by-pass and Morecambe Road back to Lancaster Bus Station. 

The 2X bus which runs to the University in the morning and starts from there in the afternoon will continue to run via Kingsway and Mossgate Road to get to and from Heysham Towers.  Please note the original version of the timetable said that this bus only runs in University term times, this was an error the bus runs all year. 

Route 4

This service will run every 30 minutes between Lancaster University Underpass and Lancaster Railway Station. The bus will run via Hala and Bowerham. At peak times on weekday mornings buses will also serve Alexandra Park and will not serve the Bus Station on their way to the University. 

Also at peak times during University terms route 4X will provide a faster link between the Railway Station and University using Scotforth Road. 

On other routes, times will change but routes will stay the same.  You can find most of the new timetables below. Timetables for service 5 and 555 will not change, timetables for 49 and 55 will be published shortly. 

If you responded to the consultation and want to know the changes we made following this please click here. 

Note that service numbers are being altered and re-used.  In trying to understand the new network it's probably better to forget about what was there before and start from scratch!

New Timetables for ALL bus services in Lancaster and Morecambe (except the 49 and 55, which aren't yet available from Stagecoach)  are available from us  VIA THIS LINK

CLICK HERE for a map of services 1, 2, 2X,4 and /6A

Accessible Information Consultation: Our Response

The Bus Services Act 2017 includes provision for the introduction of regulations requiring  bus companies to equip their vehicles with systems to provide information to passengers on the route and destination of the vehicle as well as informing them of the name of each approaching bus stop in both an audible and visible format. Improving the accessibility of information will build on the obvious advantages of improving the physical accessibility of buses that has been achieved in recent years. It will make bus travel easier and therefore more attractive not just for people with sight or hearing difficulties but for passengers using an unfamiliar service or travelling to a new destination. 

Some bus operators provide this information after a fashion as passengers on the 555 might have noticed. Whilst Stagecoach's efforts are restricted to audio announcements at certain stops more comprehensive systems can be found locally in parts of Blackburn and Burnley and, of course, London.  They are also common in mainland Europe, as with these examples from Switzerland, where a second screen appears to be being used for advertising, presumably to help finance the system.

This display shows the next stop (top) the following two stops, with an indication of the time
taken to reach them (centre) and the  destination of the bus and arrival time. (bottom)
(Note the classic "Swiss Railway" clock at the bottom right!)

This screen shows the available connections from the next stop: note that the
second and third connections are reported running one minute late!

Whilst the proposals will bring undoubted benefits to all passengers, the government recognises that they will impose costs upon operators. It has therefore launched a consultation aimed at finding out whether what is proposed will be what passengers require and how and when it should be introduced so as to minimise costs, particularly to small bus companies.

The Bus Users' Group has responded to the consultation saying, basically, that we agree with the requirements to provide audible and visible information, but that care needs to be taken to minimise the impact on bus operators, especially smaller firms and community bus operations.

The proposals can be read via this link.

The consultation response was made using an online response form, which can be read via this link. It takes the form of answers to a number of set questions that are based on the information provided in the consultation document itself.

The consultation remains open until 16 September should you wish to submit an individual response.